Opposition view: Williams urges Swindon to learn from '˜fantastic' Cobblers

The Robins had more possession and pressure throughout Tuesday’s encounter but they were made to pay for errant finishing and poor defending as Northampton ran out 3-1 winners.

Harry Beautyman’s early strike was cancelled out by Swindon’s Sean Murray and at that point it seemed the home side were in the ascendancy, only for the three points to head back to Sixfields thanks to late goals from John-Joe O’Toole and Kenji Gorre.

Williams was magnanimous in his assessment afterwards, admitting: “I thought we had a good chance after the equaliser to go on and win the game because it looked like we had momentum behind us and it looked like we had some new energy.

“We got what we deserved unfortunately in the end because we didn’t defend with conviction, with desire to make a tackle and it was too easy to beat people and too easy to find space inside our box.

“Our opposition were the opposite. They were fantastic in the box, they were aggressive, it was very, very difficult to get past somebody, it was very difficult to find any space inside the box and they were fantastic.

“We need to learn from them because they are a fantastic team. They make it incredibly difficult for you to score and when they get a soft chance against us they take it.

“We’ve done well at times, at Gillingham away and at the weekend, but not consistent enough.

“In general I don’t think there is a huge problem, there is of course because we lose far too many games, but I don’t think there is a problem with team spirit or togetherness.”